Harry Kelber runs for seat on AFL-CIO Executive Council as a voice for media reform
At 91 years young, this elder stateman of labor would put most of us to shame with the energy he has. Here is the press release for his candidacy; http://reform-aflcio.blogspot.com/ . You may note he runs his own website and also does a fair amount of blogging.
Better yet, here is his proposal for using a media strategy to return labor to its origins (thanks to my friends at MFD for the article):
Kelber Offers New Media Plan to Fill Void, As AFL-CIO Drops Its Monthly Magazine
Harry Kelber, a distinguished labor journalist and editor, has proposed a new media plan to help union organizers reach out to the millions of workers who say they would like to join a union. His plan comes at a time when the AFL-CIO has scrapped its official monthly publication, America@Work, and, given the federation’s budgetary restraints, is making no effort to replace it.
Commenting on the refusal of the AFL-CIO to establish a national media strategy, with a weekly, professional-level newspaper, as well as radio and television programs, Kelber asks: "If you can't talk to non-union workers, how are you going to organize them?"
Kelber, who is thus far the first and only candidate for Executive Council, says: "A steady stream of anti-union propaganda, some of it true, pours forth from editorial writers, commentators, right wing politicians and corporate 'consultants,' who demonize unions and their leaders. Yet workers who read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch television never get the union 'message.' They tend to believe all the anti-union arguments because in only very rare instances do they get convincing answers--or any answers at all--from the AFL-CIO leadership."
Kelber's career dates back to 1939, when he was editor of two weekly labor papers, the Trade Union Record and the Building Trades Union Press. He was both an observer and an active participant during a period that saw the rise of the CIO and enormous growth of unions in the mass production industries.
In the 1940s and 1950s, he helped set up official publications for locals of the hotel workers, machinists, furniture workers, teamsters and transit workers, while assisting them in their publicity efforts.
Kelber says that unions that give the highest priority to organizing must accept the fact that communicating with the public and unorganized workers is an essential part of their recruiting efforts. They must establish a committee of experts to draw up plans for a weekly newspaper, better use of the Internet, and weekly radio and television programs.
"Improving labor’s media structure will ensure that the AFL-CIO has a sustained presence and voice in the national debate on economic, social and political issues. It would also strengthen labor’s media influence if it established a coordinated relationship with the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), which has several hundred affiliated publications, as well as with Workers’ Independent News (WIN), which has more than one hundred radio outlets," he adds.
"I believe there should be at least one person on the Executive Council of 51 members who has the knowledge and experience to deal with media problems. I think I fit the need," Kelber says.
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Unions can't afford to duplicate poor broadcast media showing
Unions missed the broadcast media boat long ago. I don't know how much of that was because of corporate pressure to silence unions or how much of it was just lack of interest on the part of unions.
Whatever the reasons, the Internet allows far more access and opportunities for unions than broadcast media ever did. It's a much more democratic place than traditional broadcast media which was and still is controlled by the corporations. Good ideas thrive and survive on the Internet and the bad ideas lie dormant in the dark corners never to see the light of day. Unions need to be aggressively promoting and developing their agenda and ideas on the Internet and take part in the Internet's democratic process. Just like with broadcast media, silence is death.
THE INTERNET WILL MAKE BROADCAST MEDIA MORE EFFECTIVE FOR UNIONS
Take a quick look back on the history of mass media and union strength. The thirties, forties, and fifties were the heyday for unions. Kelber and the trade union movement were intimately involved with the mass media organ of those times: newspapers. Unfortunely, as mass media evolved into different modes based upon technological evolutions: radio, television, direct mail; the trade union movement stayed with newspapers and leaflets, and our densities have been spiraling downward ever since. For sure; organized labor allowed the broadcast media boat to pass them by, and now it is sink or swim for the trade union movement.
Kelber clearly acknowledges the importance of using mass media as an effective tool for reaching out to workers, in order to establish a sence of relevance for organized labor, in their daily lives. And the Internet could provide the most important aspect of this mass media appeal: the opportunity for (real-time) interaction.
Imagine the AFL-CIO conducting a mass media campaign for “Open Source Unionism”, in the Southwest, or anywhere for that matter. The Internet would be the interactive mode that allowed people to sign up, gather information, exchange ideas, and feel a part of an organization that had relevance to their lives.
John Foster
GCC/IBT Local 4C